The Birthday Wish
by mlollove
Summary: When a fan wishes for her birthday that things were different she did not expect to find herself in District 12 or falling in love with Peeta. What happens when her wish is a reality? An in-their-world story. Better summary inside! Peeta/OOC Katniss/Gale.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: June is your average girl. On her 17th birthday when she blew out her candles, she wished things were different and when she was wishing things such as the Hunger Games, Peeta and finding love entered her mind. She soon finds out that Birthday wishes do come true and she is in District 12. Peeta/OOC Katniss/Gale (just a bit, they won't be mentioned much). This will not be following the storyline of the had survived the games but they were not 'the star-crossed lovers of District 12' they were just acquaintances who formed an alliance due to the rule change and became friends after being crowned the victors of the 74th Hunger Games. I do not own anything (besides a District 12 Blanket).

June

I looked in the mirror one last time before leaving the car to head into school. My blonde curls fell in ringlets down my back, my makeup made my eyes shine a brighter green and my almost white teeth smiled back at me. Today would be a good day. I had to keep repeating that to myself. I took a deep breath before stepping out of my car and walking into the hell we call high school.

The sun was shining down hard and making the minimal walking distance feel even worse than normal. When I walked inside I went straight to my locker and grabbed my books I would need for my next two classes. I looked around people were starting to fill the hallways except my best friend Kellan. Kellan and I have been friends for as long as we can remember. I don't know how he puts up with me, but I am not complaining. He is my only friend in this place.

I walked by his locker and saw that he wasn't here yet so instead of missing my first period waiting for him to stop by his locker, I headed to class. You would think because it is my 17th birthday I would be all 'smiles and giggles' but it felt just like every other school day. I placed my books on my desk and sighed while I sat down. There were three more minutes before class would start and people always manage to get here right before the bell rang. Today would be uneventful as always.

The rest of my morning classes passed with a blur. I had yet to see Kellan in the hallway and he usually walks me to a few of my classes. I was beginning to get worried. He never misses school unless he is on his death bed. Soon it was time for lunch and because I had no idea where Kellan was I assumed I would be sitting by myself.

It was too hot to sit outside but I didn't want to sit by myself in the cafeteria. I rolled my eyes as I went to sit by my locker for lunch. I had my normal PB&J sandwich and a cookie with water. I have had this lunch since Pre-school. I really don't like change.

For the rest of the day I tried to pay attention in class but I kept day dreaming about what I normally do-Peeta and the Hunger Games. It has become expected in my thoughts; I read the books in 2008 and I still love them. I heard the last bell ring, signifying that the day was over.

I rushed to the parking lot and head home, I really don't want to be in school longer than I have to, especially on my birthday and it was Friday. As I was about to pull into my driveway, I saw something funny. Usually my parents were not home this early but their cars were parked outside. Rolling my eyes, I got out of my car and opened the front door.

There stood Kellan and my parents all screaming 'Happy Birthday!' in my face. I laughed and they pushed me into a chair while putting a cake in front of me. They started singing happy birthday and I was told to make a wish. I thought, before I closed my eyes exactly what to wish for. They knew that I would do this, I have been doing it every year since I was three. But once I turned ten I knew that no matter what I wished for on my birthday and by blowing out some stupid candles wouldn't change anything.

I closed my eyes and blew._ I wish things would be different. I wish that I can have a boyfriend, someone who cares._ Pictures started filling my mind, I saw Peeta with his ash blonde hair and blue eyes starring at me and brutal fighting at the cornucopia.

When I opened my eyes, nothing was different. My best friend and parents were still in front of me. They were all asking what I wished for. But to be honest, how do I say 'I wished for things to be different where I may be able to go to college or get a job or find a boyfriend or please all of you.' Instead I just told them that I can't say, then the wish wouldn't come true.

After everyone had cake I took Kellan up to my room so we could hang out for a while. My parents wanted to have a date night so they left soon after. Kellan and I were sitting on my bed just talking, like we always do.

"Kellan, why did you miss school today? You made me sit all by myself at my locker! You know how much of a loner that made me feel?" I tried to have a stern voice but I can never be too serious when it came to Kellan, I just love him too much.

"Sorry Junebug, but I had to get everything ready. Do you know how hard that was to keep this party a secret from you?" He had a smile placed on his lips and he was trying hard not to laugh, I could tell that he was kidding. Kellan was a handsome guy and many girls at our school have crushes on him, but they think that we are dating. But we're not! We are just best friends. He was built and he had brown spiky hair that stood up at odd angles no matter how many times we brushed it. He was like a big teddy bear really.

He decided to go home around 12 at night and wished me a happy birthday before leaving. I went back inside to find the mess we made. Popcorn and candy wrappers all over the floor and counters, a movie was still playing on the television. After I cleaned everything up I went upstairs and tucked myself in, wondering what my birthday wish would change if these type of things were real.

The next morning I woke up to hard packed earth below me and rain falling onto me. I was cold and still half asleep so I just curled myself into a ball, trying to ignore the cheering around me.

Cheering? I thought. That made me open my eyes. I rubbed my eyes again, trying to see where exactly I was. I looked down at myself. My blue long sleeved shirt I wore for my birthday yesterday stuck to me like a new skin and my jeans were stiff. I felt my face for any cuts, and there was nothing but the rain water running down it. My hair was soaked but the curls were somehow still intact.

Finally I looked around me. Where was I? People with dirt and black caked on them were cheering as a train rolled into an area. Whoever was in there must have gotten off because the cheering became louder. I tried to see what else was around me. I saw abandoned warehouses and people in coalminers outfits and black soot covering them, walking out from a small mineshaft. I turned my head around again, trying to see if all of this was real. I stood up and started walking in the opposite direction of the crowd that was cheering. All too soon I saw a fence, keeping me inside. It seemed to go around this whole area. That's when I knew where I was.

I'm in District Twelve and Peeta and Katniss must have just arrived home from the Games.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to anyone who reviewed the first chapter and those who added this story to their favorites or alerts! It always makes me smile to see an email telling me someone thinks that my story is good enough to be in the category of 'favorites' or 'alerts' or even review-worthy. Thank you all once again! And please review, I want to know what you think!

-Also, just a reminder: Katniss and Peeta are best friends in my story. There is no "Oh Katniss I am so in love with you." and "Oh Peeta I don't believe a word you are saying but deep down I love you too." in this story. After the games, they become each other's confidant to deal with the aftermath of the games. Because they both had lived through the games they know what the other has gone through. But Katniss came back to District 12 and she knows that she is in love with Gale and Gale is in love with her. But Peeta is left with no love life as of now. That is what this story is for. June has read all of the books and thinks that she has been dropped into their coming home ceremony after the 74th games. She thinks that the books will play out exactly as she read them, but her presence in District 12 will change everything she realized to be true about the books. (Please remember that, it is a crucial element to the story).

JPOV

I stood there, stunned. I am pretty sure my mouth was hanging open and I blinked more than twenty times. I rubbed my eyes and took a look around me again, this was definitely District 12. The coal dust was everywhere and it covered much of the ground and it seemed to be in the cracks of the houses. Why did I not realize this before? I took a tentative step out of the district square. No one paid me any attention. I kept my head down, the rain had started to beat down faster and my hair stuck to my face. But that didn't seem to bother the citizens as they kept smiling and cheering for Peeta and Katniss' safe return.

I longed to go up there and to see Peeta, but I was afraid that I would stand out. My sun-bleached blonde hair would make me stand out already, and then there was my clothes. I looked down at myself again. Jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. I didn't blend in here very well, I would need to find a way to blend in. I looked around and saw all the shops on the street closed. That was to be expected. But I wondered why the miners were still working.

During the Reaping the miners had to take off and they were allowed to sleep in until two o'clock when the Reaping began. That way they were able to get a head count. I tried to remember anything about them, Katniss and Peeta, coming home. Peeta was mad at Katniss because he found out that she was acting all 'lovey-dovey' with Peeta and didn't mean it. Then Catching Fire it started out right before the district tour. This must be the time in between.

Why was I even here? I had to ask myself this question at least twice every minute. This was supposed to be a fictional world, and now I was in it. It was tangible. I feel the rain and the earth beneath my feet. I had to remind myself to keep an eye out for Peacekeepers. I was afraid they would notice something off about me and suspect me as a runaway and make me become an avox. I swallowed slightly at the thought.

The cheering soon stopped and I thought for a moment that I saw a pink wig and the only word that came to mind was Effie. It seemed as if the celebration was over for now, because people were leaving the train station platform and going back to what seemed to be their normal routines. I honestly thought I saw Delley for a second. I was about to scream like a fan girl that I was, but that would scare everyone and only draw more attention to me.

As I walked past people and they walked past me, they gave me a look of confusion before looking me up and down and pulling their lips into a straight line. I couldn't seem to think of why they would do this. In the books, it seemed like everyone in District 12 knew everyone else. So to see a new face, I bet many were afraid. But who was I? How long would I be staying here? How did I even get here? Was I myself or someone else? I couldn't quite seem to figure anything out.

I tried to find someone who looked like they would help me but either people didn't see me or the people that did, didn't want anything to do with me. Sighing I just watched as people went inside their houses and did whatever it is they do in there. Sleep? Eat? But eat what I have no idea. Play? But play with what? There didn't seem to be any type of toys here. I tried to shrug off the feeling of helplessness as I went past people's houses. I looked at everyone and tried to notice every detail so when I went home I could sketch out these houses and then make them into paintings.

I stopped when I reached a sign that said 'BAKERY – FRESH DAILY'. I stood there and just stared at the sign. It swung slightly on its hinges as the wind began to pick up. I didn't feel any heat coming from inside so I assumed that there was no baking today. It was two stories high, the first story seemed to be just the bakery itself. But the second story had to be their house. The Mellark's house. A tiny smile found its way to my face as I kept staring and thinking of how close I was to Peeta's bed.

I quickly shook that out of my mind. Peeta was in love with Katniss. They lived in Victors Village now with his whole family. That was not his house anymore. Sighing I turned on my heel and kept my head down figuring that anyone who wanted to avoid me, would. My blonde hair kept falling in front of my eyes and as I went to drag my hair through my bangs I bumped into something. Well it was more like someone.

I let out a squeak and fell to the wet ground, which had now turned to mud. My head flung back, but my elbows dug into the mud before my head hit the ground. My legs sprawled out in front of me and I was left just sitting there. I forgot what I had bumped into until he bent down into the mud and kept apologizing. I opened my eyes and wiped the rain water from my face to say sorry for bumping into him when I noticed who it was.

Peeta. He was sitting there. In the mud. In front of me. Because I knocked into him. Peeta was right in front of me! I opened my mouth to try and speak but no words came out. I tried again and there was nothing. He kept asking me if I was ok. I couldn't seem to stop looking at him. He was exactly as I had pictured. Sturdy build, broad shoulders, ash blonde hair, bright blue eyes, perfect white teeth.

I shook my head slightly to try and get all of these thoughts out of my head. He is in love with Katniss! I had to keep telling myself that. He stopped talking when I shook my head. It was my turn to talk, to say sorry.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. I should have been watching where I was going. I am so stupid. I'm so sorry. Are you hurt? Did I hurt you? What about your leg? Are you ok?" I was talking so quickly I didn't even understand half of what came out of my mouth. But Peeta seemed to understand. He laughed slightly before standing up and reaching out his hand for me. My heart stuttered in its chest and my breathing picked up. I was going to touch him. I smiled slightly as I was about to put my hand in his, when I noticed that my hand was covered in mud. I wiped it off on my shirt, Peeta was shaking his head while I was doing this. I reached up again and took his hand.

Sparks seemed to set my whole body alive. I felt like my hand was tingling from just the slightest touch of Peeta. He helped me to my feet and stared at me for a few moments before speaking. "I'm Peeta Mellark," his voice was hard to describe but it was a soft, caring type of caress almost, that seemed to wrap around me. He was looking at me, that is when I remembered that I hadn't introduced myself. I smiled and spoke. "I'm June. June Patton."

He stood there for a moment, mumbling something under his breath that I wasn't able to hear. He smiled up at me and asked what I was doing out here. I looked around me and noticed I was still in front of the bakery. But instead of answering him, I asked a question instead. "Why aren't you at Victors Village with your family? You know celebrating and all." I shrugged slightly trying to show that it wasn't that much of importance to me, but in reality it was.

"I just came over to pick up some of our old stuff," he pointed toward the bakery and then looked down at me. "I feel really bad. I made you fall and ruined your clothes. I have something that can help." He started to walk up the bakery steps and I tried to imagine what Peeta must have looked like when he gave Katniss that bread. The pig pens were right near the bakery and I could imagine him standing on the steps and not looking near Katniss and tossing her the hot loaves.

He turned back to me and spoke "Well, are you gunna come in?" He smiled, making it obvious that he was joking around with me and he motioned with his arm for me to follow. I followed silently, never taking my eyes off of him. I examined what he was wearing. It was nice capitol clothing, though it was drenched in water, I could still notice the nice materials that I take for granted every day. Attached to his nice silk pants was a knife. It was joule encrusted and it looked like a very expensive knife but the only word that came to mind was Clove.

I walked into the bakery and the first thing I smelt, though it wasn't very surprising, was stale bread. I walked right behind him while trying to enjoy everything around me. The bakery wasn't as big as I imagined it to be. The ovens took up the majority of the room and what other room was left was filled with supplies to bake bread and other pastry projects. A small smile came to my face as I thought of Peeta making the cakes in this very house. I wondered where all the cakes went when the became stale. Would the Mellark family eat the stale cakes? Do they feed them to the pigs like with the burnt bread?

Peeta had stopped and looked at me while I was looking at all the things in his house. It was like a hidden treasure chest that I was never able to open. It was one of the things that I wanted to know more about no matter how much information I received. Peeta had a smile on his face and when I saw that, I froze. "What?" I asked, in a whisper, somewhat slightly. He shook his head and told me to stay where I was while he went to get some supplies.

I didn't want to sit down. I was afraid that he wouldn't want me intruding in his home more than I already was. I wondered when he would start painting. I would have loved to see any of his paintings with my own eyes. I felt as if Katniss never described them well enough. A sigh escaped my lips as Peeta came back in with a wash bucket and board.

"What is a pretty girl like you sighing so much? That's how you get wrinkles you know? All that worry." He pulled out the chair next to me and stepped away from it slightly, offering it to me. I smiled politely and said thank you before sitting down and he grabbed the chair next to mine and sat with one hand near his belt loop-near his knife.

"I was just thinking," I said not really sure if I should even be talking or not to him or to anyone. I was afraid that I would ruin something or everything by being here. I was afraid that I could mess up the whole books, just one tiny thing and everything could change. This is just like time traveling. Peeta propped his head up on his hand and asked "What were you thinking about?" He stared at me with curiosity in those deep blue eyes of his.

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. I don't know if I was even allowed to say anything, not that I knew much of what was going on. "Family, life, you know things like that." I spoke my voice kind of betraying my inner emotions. He chuckled slightly before he spoke. "Oh trust me, I know all about stuff like that. Life that can be taken away from you so easily so you walk on eggshells and when you finally are able to do something with your life you are forced to do the one thing you hate." He just rambled and looked at the table. I didn't say anything. I was trying to figure out how that had to deal with the Games and Katniss and if it had to deal with that at all.

"Where are your brothers, shouldn't they be helping you move stuff?" I tried discreetly to look at his 'new leg' but he caught me staring. "Do you want to see it?" He asked, a light blush touching his cheeks as he looked at me. I was about to nod, "But only if you want me to see. I'm not going to force you to show me something you don't want to see." He laughed, so hard that he was clutching his sides while he tried to breath. "That's life, sweetheart. You always see something you don't want to see." His eyes became distant for a while, but in my head all I kept thinking was 'he called me sweetheart!'

Peeta cleared his throat before responding, grabbing my attention back to the present. "They're, ah, busy setting up the new house. My parents are excited to finally see what me winning the games has brought them." It stayed quiet for a few minutes as I tried to think of something to say. "I'm sorry June. I shouldn't have said that, forget it." I looked at him, puzzled. Why would he tell me to forget it?

"Peeta, its fine. Really. I'm not offended in the slightest." I shrugged my shoulders and motioned with my hands to let him know that I really wasn't fazed by this. I was used to people rubbing in their wealth in front of me, it happened purposely at school. But this time, things were different. He didn't mean to rub it in my face, we were just talking. He smiled slightly.

I looked at the wash bucket that he put on the floor, it was still raining and I probably would be able to fill this up and wash it before it got too dark and hopefully it would be able to dry out quick enough. I smiled up at Peeta and I knew I already would hate the words that were going to come out of my mouth. "Thanks so much Peeta. It was a pleasure, an honor really, to meet you. I promise I will return your wash bucket as soon as I'm done with it. Maybe I could even help you move some things, if you need help that is." I smiled up at him as I bent down to pick up the bucket.

"June!" I don't think that Peeta meant to yell, but it startled me and I dropped the wash bucket with a clank onto the floor. I whipped my head around to see Peeta standing up in front of me. "June, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. But I was wondering if you wanted to come back to my house, im pretty sure we have a washer and dryer there in case you want to clean your clothes. I mean it is my fault that you fell down into the mud. It's the least I can do."

I just stared up at him. No words came to me. He was so generous and he didn't know a thing about me besides my name. I shook my head no and decided to speak. "This is your first night back. Spend it with your family. Enjoy being with them. I will be fine. A little dirt never hurt anyone." I smiled sadly as I started to head toward the door leading outside into the pouring rain.

I heard his heavy footsteps before he grabbed my wrist and brought it back up to his chest. He turned me around so that I was facing him. "Please, let me do something for you. I promise I won't bite." A smile I can only describe as sly played on his lips. I was so memorized that all I could do was nod my head in consent.

Peeta wants me to come to his house! He wants to do something nice for me!

"Good," Peeta said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the bakery. I didn't care that he didn't have anything he came for. A smile formed on both of our faces as we started walking out into the rain. Peeta made sure that I didn't hit anyone or slip on anything on our way to Victors Village.

All I could think about was the wish I made last night and somehow, in my gut I knew, that it was coming true.


End file.
